The above was announced yesterday, Friday, by the Ministry of Humanitarian Action and Disaster Management of the Sahel State.
Niger authorities’ tally as of August 7 was 137,156 affected, 93 injured and “unfortunately, 94 lives lost, including 44 from drowning and 50 from house collapses,” Minister Aisha Lawan Oudarma said during a press conference yesterday. (9/8).
A previous count, announced on July 15 by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), put the death toll at 53 and 18,000 affected. According to the same source, those affected may exceed 247,000 before the rainy season ends in September.
Niger: Risk of lack of drinking water and spread of diseases
The phenomenon is being exacerbated by “climate change” in the largely desert-covered country, OCHA noted.
The capital, Niamey, which has so far remained unscathed, has also been hit, and now has at least four deaths and several injuries, according to the interior ministry.
At the same time, several power outages were decided for “security reasons” after substations of the distribution network were flooded, NIGELEC, Niger’s public electricity company, said.
All eight prefectures of the country are affected by the floods, especially Maradi (center-south), Zinder (center-east) and Tawa (west).
The minister also expressed concern over the possibility of a “drinking water shortage” in the affected areas and the spread of diseases such as “malaria, malaria and cholera”.
Always according to the minister, more than 15,000 houses and about forty school rooms were destroyed, while “15,472” farmed animals were lost in the country, where animal husbandry is one of the pillars of the economy.
For his part, Niger’s Minister of Transport, Colonel Shalisou Maaman Shalisou, said that roads and bridges are impassable due to the waters, some of them in the Agadez desert zone (north).
Niger’s national meteorological service is predicting heavy rainfall in August, which is generally considered “the rainiest month” in the country.
In order to limit the number of casualties and damage, the authorities are sending text messages to residents urging them to “stay home”, “guarantee the safety of their animals” and indicating a phone number they can call in case of an emergency.
The rainy season (June-September) is often deadly in Niger, even in desert-covered areas of the country with a generally dry climate.
In 2022, the death toll was extremely heavy, with 195 dead and 400,000 affected. In 2023, floods left behind 52 dead, 80 injured and 176,000 affected, according to Niger’s interior ministry.
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